June 29, 2013

Dianne Feinstein joins the staff of the Militant newspaper

But there is no push for Big Brother repression. Spying by the propertied rulers isn’t currently directed against the entire population, nor is it primarily aimed today at working-class militants. The data-mining programs Snowden leaked details on are aimed at Islamist-jihadist terrorists.

Today, as before, the main targets of the FBI, NSA, and other “homeland security” cops are the unions, Black rights fighters, and other opponents of government policies. The billionaire families that rule the United States through the government and their twin parties—the Democrats and Republicans—know their profit system has entered today a turbulent period of economic depression and wars. They know that in the coming years they must resort to rougher methods against workers and farmers, who will resist the effects of this social crisis. At the same time, they do not face the explosive political conditions of the 1960s and ’70s, generated by the Black rights and related struggles, that imposed restraints on their political police operations.

The article is just so much whistling in the dark…by people who seem to be well in the dark. Struggles are where you find them, not where ideology tells you they have to be. Pissing on your own pant legs, we all do it, but my impression is that the so-called Militant has been doing it for a very long time.

Snowden moved this stuff out of the realm of “conspiracy”. Yes, we knew it was going on, but we really didn’t know in the sense of being able to mention it in everyday conversation without getting conspiracy eye rolls.

Also, the U.S. was clearly pushing China into a confrontation with regard to hacking, and this strategy of moral outrage has now been eliminated.

The inhuman treatment of Bradley Manning was carried out and given extensive publicity precisely to intimidate others from emulating him. In light of that, Snowden’s actions are about as courageous as anything I can imagine. And then to have these little weasels (John Studer!) whining about people who consider Snowden a hero . . . well, they provide a perfect example of what the phrase “beneath contempt” means. As for me, I think hero-worship is generally not a good thing, but if anyone is worthy of the honor, Snowden, Manning, and Lynne Stewart are among mine.